NightRain - Slashdot User

Is the Gaming PC Dead? 417

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 24, 2008 @03:48AM from the no-way-dude-check-out-my-$8000-alienware dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Rahul Sood, HP's CTO of gaming, argues that the days of a market that wants PCs running three $500 GPUs is history; he argues that it's really a tough or impossible sell. '... let's face it, high-end hardware has delivered diminishing returns in terms of value. This is why you don't see ridiculous offerings like Quad SLI and 2-kilowatt power supplies coming from our company.' But don't the ideas of customization and market pricing for components tend to undercut that? Is the gaming PC dead?"

Comment Re:sigh (Score 1) 674

by NightRain on Tuesday December 23, 2008 @12:26AM (#26208577) Attached to: Australia To Block BitTorrent

Yet again you are incorrect in that you can chose a second choice and third and so on in the AU system so if your candidate is eliminated then you vote is counted for your next best choice

So I'm meant to have meaningful input in the relative rankings of 40+ candidates? That's not entirely realistic. You may have answers that are /technically/ correct in regards to the issues I've raised, but in no way do they do much to actually address the frustration I feel with the system, because even if I do it and don't make a mistake invalidating my entire vote, it's still really just a vote for one of the major parties. Having the ability to technically do something does not ease my frustration when the results of doing it are nothing but a drain on my own time and resources without any other tangible changes.

Comment Re:sigh (Score 1) 674

by NightRain on Monday December 22, 2008 @09:46PM (#26207643) Attached to: Australia To Block BitTorrent

Here you are incorrect currently one alternative(the greens) has the power to and is blocking this bill in my understanding that THAT IS RELEVANT

Sure, in this once instance, it might be technically relevant. But in general they are an irrelevancy, as are the independants and other minor parties. If they're lucky enough to get the balance of power, they can block things they don't like, but they can't drive policy even then.

Yes you do vote for an independent or small party in the senate that supports some of your issues and a party or independent the supports other issues in the house of reps

And as long as we have an entrenched two party system, it will continue to be as useless as it is now. I vote for someone who doesn't get in, my vote is wasted and I'm lumped with one of the two parties, or I can suck it up and vote for one of the two options that I dislike the least as that's the only realistic way my vote will have any influence on the outcome.

Comment Re:sigh (Score 1) 674

by NightRain on Monday December 22, 2008 @04:10PM (#26204487) Attached to: Australia To Block BitTorrent

The real problem here is that people become disenfranchised because they don't involve. After all why should I care about you because all you do is complain, whine, etc.

Not really. We have an institutionalised two party system in Australia. People become disenfranchised because they're left choosing between two options they don't want, or wasting their vote on an alternative that will never get in to a position relevancy.

Personally, the last government did nothing but undercut and take away things I care about. The new government, whilst being generally one I prefer, has this little bombshell, which ensures they won't get my vote in spite of otherwise being inline with my desires.

There are no other meaningful alternatives, and I have no way of effectively voting to show my support for some of the current policies of the government and my strong displeasure at others

That is disenfranchising

Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV 482

Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 21, 2008 @07:08PM from the or-was-that-redundant dept.

Whiteox writes about an Australian researcher named Renata Pronk, who has discovered that octopuses prefer HDTV. She recruited 32 gloomy octopuses from the waters of Chowder Bay. Previously, researchers have reported little success when showing video to octopuses. Miss Pronk's insight was that the octopus eye is so refined that it might see standard PAL video, at 25 fps, as a series of stills. She tried HDTV (50 fps) and her subjects reacted to the videos of a crab, another octopus, or a swinging bottle on the end of a string. A further discovery is that octopuses show no trait of individual personalities, even though they exhibit a high level of intelligence. It would certainly be possible to quibble about the definition of "personality" employed, and whether Miss Pronk had successfully measured it.

Comment Re:Novell already did this (Score 1) 460

by NightRain on Sunday December 21, 2008 @06:34AM (#26190227) Attached to: New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video

That's quite an awesome idea actually...

New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video 460

Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 21, 2008 @01:38AM from the dust-off-directors'-chairs-and-hats dept.

LinuxScribe writes "From Apple's ubiquitous 'I'm a Mac,' to Jerry Seinfeld, to Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' retort, operating system commercials have been flooding the airways. Except that Linux is the one OS that has been notably absent. Now the Linux Foundation is launching a video contest on their new video site to fill this void. The winner gets a trip to Tokyo next year to participate in the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium, and some serious geek cred." The contest doesn't officially open until late January; the blog post has an email address to contact if you want to get a head start.

An In-Depth Look At Game Piracy 504

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday December 20, 2008 @02:15PM from the share-and-share-alike dept.

TweakGuides is running a detailed examination of PC game piracy. The author begins with a look at the legal, moral, and monetary issues behind copyright infringement, and goes on to measure the scale of game piracy and how it affects developers and publishers. He also discusses some of the intended solutions to piracy. He provides examples of copy protection and DRM schemes that have perhaps done more harm than good, as well as less intrusive measures which are enjoying more success. The author criticizes the "culture of piracy" that has developed, saying. "Fast forward to the 21st century, and piracy has apparently somehow become a political struggle, a fight against greedy corporations and evil copy protection, and in some cases, I've even seen some people refer to the rise of piracy as a 'revolution.' What an absolute farce. ... Piracy is the result of human nature: when faced with the option of getting something for free or paying for it, and in the absence of any significant risks, you don't need complex economic studies to show you that most people will opt for the free route."

Mechanical AI Made In LittleBigPlanet 65

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday December 20, 2008 @01:45AM from the somebody-make-a-quake-3-LBP-port dept.

Laurens writes "Despite slow sales of LittleBigPlanet in the USA, you might have heard of the calculator made within the game, but now that has been topped. I found a fully-functioning AI machine which plays Tic-Tac-Toe against the player. Considering that you can't actually program in LBP, this feat is impressive; it is a machine which has mechanical AND and OR ports made of pistons and proximity detectors, a physically moving Program Counter, and hundreds of wires. The level is called 'Tic Tac Toe' and is by author Cristel." Another player created a similarly amazing level that is a recreation of John Conway's Game of Life.

EA Is Now Officially On Steam, Spore Loses SecuROM 354

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 19, 2008 @10:13PM from the baby-steps dept.

Trevor DeRiza writes "Today, Valve and EA revealed that this week's earlier rumors were true: Spore (and other EA games) are coming to Steam. As of today, Spore, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer Online, Mass Effect, Need for Speed: Undercover, and FIFA Manager 2009 are all available for download on Steam. In the coming weeks, EA will add Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, and Red Alert 3. On the official Steam forums, when asked whether or not Spore would contain the dreaded SecuROM DRM that contributed to it being the most pirated game of 2008, a moderator replied, 'It does not have third party DRM.' EA has also finally launched a 'de-authorization tool' to free up limited installation slots." Several readers have written to point out other news about Steam today: they've begun selling games priced in local currency for European customers. The only problem? Their conversion rate seems to be $1 per €1, somewhat less favorable than the current exchange rate, which is roughly $1.40 per €1.

RIAA To Stop Prosecuting Individual File Sharers 619

Posted by kdawson on Friday December 19, 2008 @09:16AM from the declare-victory-and-withdraw dept.

debatem1 writes "According to the Wall Street Journal, the RIAA has decided to abandon its current tactic of suing individuals for sharing copyrighted music. Ongoing lawsuits will be pursued to completion, but no new ones will be filed. The RIAA is going to try working with the ISPs to limit file-sharing services and cut off repeated users. This very surprising development apparently comes as a result of public distaste for the campaign." An RIAA spokesman is quoted as saying that the litigation campaign has been "successful in raising the public's awareness that file-sharing is illegal."

How Gamers View Their MMOs 132

Posted by Soulskill on Monday December 15, 2008 @03:39AM from the ooo-shiny-objects dept.

GamerDNA is trying out what they call their Discovery Engine, a system that uses metadata from users to classify games and identify which have similar traits. Massively describes it thus: "Once the gamerDNA community continues to contribute to something like this, it builds up an enormous database of terminology based on actual player knowledge, not just shiny PR words thrown together to promote a game. These search terms can end up being unique to a specific genre, and ultimately lead gamers to exactly the types of games they're looking for." GamerDNA tested the system out on some of the popular MMOs, and they've posted the results. They look at how MMO players identify themselves within the game, how they describe the setting, and what basic descriptive phrases they use in reference to the games.

Left 4 Dead Bug Patched Quickly, EVE Exploit Takes 4 Years 157

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 12, 2008 @05:55AM from the fast-and-not-so-fast dept.

Earlier this week, news surfaced that some savvy modders of Valve's Left 4 Dead were able to find a way to enable console commands (meant for the PC version) in the Xbox 360 version of the game. This allowed players to increase the size of their character models to ridiculous proportions, spawn unlimited weapons for themselves (or unlimited enemies for other, unsuspecting players), and go around the map deleting objects as they saw fit. A video posted on YouTube showed how to enable the commands. Valve reacted swiftly to the issues, releasing a patch to disable access to the commands a few days later. Several readers have pointed out another exploit-related story which broke recently; in EVE Online, a bug that was reported and went un-patched for four years has recently come to light, apparently responsible for the fraudulent creation of trillions of ISK, the game's currency. An anonymous reader says that (illegitimate) sales of ISK between players and farmers run on the order of $35 per 450 million ISK.

Paul McCartney Releases Album As DRM-Free Download 292

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @04:17AM from the getting-it dept.

Medieval Cow writes "Sir Paul McCartney has a side project called The Fireman and he's just released their new album, Electric Arguments, as a digital download. Why this is of interest to this community is that he released it 100% DRM-free. You can purchase just the digital files, or if you purchase a physical CD or vinyl copy, you are also given access to the digital download. Not only that, but the download is available in 320-kbps MP3, Apple Lossless, or even FLAC format. If you're interested in trying before you buy, you can listen to the entire album in a Flash player on the main page of the site. It's so nice to see a big musician who gets it. Bravo, Sir Paul!"

SOE Allows Purchase of In-Game Items In Everquest I, II 173

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @01:57AM from the take-that-gold-farmers dept.

Zonk points out some big news for fans of the Everquest games; Sony Online Entertainment has rolled out a system which allows the exchange of real money for items used in the game. Sony is making use of a transaction system called Station Cash which charges your credit card in exchange for a virtual currency which is then spendable on the items. Massively has a walkthrough of how it will work, and shows some of the items up for sale, including vanity armor, non-combat pets, and potions that make various aspects of your character better. "Each of these types of flasks comes in a tier. Tier I flasks increase XP by 10% and cost $1.00. Tier II flasks increase XP by 25% and cost $5.00. Tier III flasks increase XP by 50%, and cost $10.00 each. All flask tiers last for 4 hours on use, and more than one can't be used at a time." Further details on the system are available in the FAQ and the Terms of Service. This comes alongside news today that upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be subscription-based, but entirely based on micro-transactions instead.

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